The U.S. Department of Labor announced the award of two new cooperative agreements to support efforts by the governments of Ecuador and Panama to combat child labor among vulnerable groups. Both projects include a focus on children from Afro-descendant, indigenous and migrant populations.

International Labor Organization will receive $3.5 million to fund a project that will strengthen policy and enforcement initiatives to combat child labor in vulnerable populations. Under a separate agreement, Partners of the Americas was awarded $6.5 million to provide education to children and livelihood services to their families as part of a strategy to reduce child labor. In Ecuador, both projects will include efforts to address the relationship between child labor and disability, a neglected area in global efforts against child labor. Both projects will promote the sharing of experiences in combating child labor throughout the Latin America region.

1. Nice, but inadequate

Israel gets more than $2 billion to exploit Palestinians. Egypt get more than that for not attacking Israel. My school district spent about $10 million to educate ~400 kids every year. Better to strengthen local unions and empower laborers to help themselves.